Let the paring begin! GM to notify dealers to be laid off.
Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 5:11 am
This would likely include some BUICK-PONTIAC-GMC dealers.'"GM CEO Fritz Henderson said Monday [5/11/09] that GM will begin late this week notifying dealers who will be closed as the company cuts its U.S. network by 50 percent.In a 30-minute media conference call, Henderson said the process of shutting dealerships will continue for several months he but gave few details.“We will try to work with them to affect an orderly wind down of their inventory,†he said.Henderson reiterated the company’s intention to sell its Saturn brand if a deal can be worked out. A number of parties have emerged, he said.The company also is negotiating with two potential buyers for the Hummer brand, he said, and still plans to wind down the Pontiac nameplate.The question-and-answer session elicited little new information about how GM is progressing on a viability plan that must be presented before a June 1 Treasury Department-imposed deadline.No specific GM sites were identified, but Henderson said the company is in negotiations with the United Auto Workers union about the planned closing of 13 plants and slashing of its hourly workforce by about 21,000 to 40,000. He would not disclose details.Relative to selling any plants, he said GM was not trying to market any facility but that if a party was interested, the company was be open to discussing the possibility.About a possible GM bankruptcy, Henderson repeated, as he said several weeks ago, that a Chapter 11 filing is probable given the task and time frame under which it needs to show it can become viable.“It is more probable today, but there is still the opportunity and challenge of getting it done outside bankruptcy,†he said."